This invention relates to window pane mountings for vehicles and, more particularly, to a new and improved window pane mounting which is especially adapted to facilitate removal of the window pane when necessary.
Heretofore, window panes for vehicles have been mounted by providing a bead of cement between a flange of the vehicle body extending approximately parallel to the surface of the pane and bounding an opening to receive the window and an edge section of the pane which faces the flange, and a flexible molding is removably mounted on the flange to cover the joint between the flange and the window pane. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,792 for example, a window pane is mounted on the flange of a vehicle by a bead of curable adhesive material confined between the flange and a rubber dam, and the molding is formed with projecting wire loops which embrace an adjacent portion of the flange and project into the region of the cement bead so as to be enveloped by the curable adhesive material when the window is mounted on the flange.
When a window mounted in this manner is to be replaced, the molding is stripped from the flange, pulling the wire loops from the adhesive material but leaving the main body of the adhesive material intact, and thereby requiring substantial force or the use of a cutter or adhesive dissolving material to separate the window pane from the frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,100 discloses a weatherstrip sealing arrangement in which a strip of resilient material contains a ladder-shaped assembly of deformable metal strips connected between continuous cords at their opposite ends, the ladder being embedded in a strip of resilient material. That weatherstrip arrangement is applied to a flange without the use of adhesive or mastic material by deforming the metal strips into a U-shape so as to clamp them around the flange while embracing a tubular rubber gasket. Because of the absence of an adhesive, that arrangement does not lend itself to the mounting of a window pane on a vehicle.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved window pane mounting for a vehicle utilizing a cement joint between the window pane and a vehicle flange by which the cement joint can be seperated in a simple and convenient manner when it is necessary to remove the window pane from the vehicle.